Building a budget gaming system

If you plan to overclock, it's probably best to get a supplemental heatsink. Probably something like this:

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 $29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


I don't know what your budget actually is or if you have old parts that you can use, but maybe something like this will work for you:

AMD A8-3870K Unlocked Llano 3.0GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6550D AD3870WNGXBOX $144.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model BLS2KIT4G3D1609DS1S00 $44.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply $44.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

ASUS F1A75-M LE FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM $18.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

HITACHI HDS721050CLA362 (0F10381) 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $79.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Hi  

The general rule is you CANNOT build a BUDGET gaming system because a gaming system needs a BIG grapgics card and they are not cheap...my last card as an example on one of my gaming machines cost £480,,,

The rest of your list is ok...but for decent gaming you NEED a lot better card than that....even if you have to change it later once you have more money...

All the best Brett  

Yeah, for now im not going to be playing extreme games, so im pretty sure this card will work for now, im planning on spending around $200 on one sometime later. Literally all I need to be done with this system is the CPU and cooling components, I already have everything. Oh yes I have a WD caviar 640GB green which my dad had but then it broke, so im sending it back to get it replaced (its under warranty so its free). I have already ordered everything and im planning on purchasing the amd phenom 955, I really dont like amd's bulldozer chips, its just my personal opinion. Im just kinda scared im going to through money into a inneficiant cooling system, on suggestions on a good $200 GPU? No crossfire I cant afford that.

Ive already bought everything but the cpu, ive waited for good deals on most of this stuff and have saved a lot of money that way, what do you think about buying a Phenom II X4 955 Black edition?

Minimal system to be considered "gaming" Is a 6870

If you've bought most of the stuff, the Phenom II X4 955 BE looks like a nice purchase that should fit well.

Not sure how this fits into your budget, but I've read a lot of good things about this one:

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 1366/1155 and AMD FM1/AM3+ $44.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

This should cool your system nicely.

Yea, I was looking at that the other day, im willing to spend up to $50 on a cpu cooler because I realize how vital they are to a good system. Originally I was planning on using the stock one but ive very much found out that thing is worthless pretty much, does water cooled cpu's cool better than air ones?

They don't need to have a 6870 if they're playing at low resolution or low settings or a non demanding browser game.

I'm pretty sure in order to be considered "gaming" a system needs to be able to play the user's games.

I've never tried water cooling before, but, from what I've gathered here, the general consensus is that air cooling is generally more fail proof (don't have to worry about leaks, etc) and probably just as effective as water cooling.

Watercooling though is an expensive setup. However produces much better performance than any aircooler.

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey

Yeah ive been looking around on these forums, im going to go with air cooling, I cant spend the money and plus I cant risk there being a leak, cuz im a bit of a novice at these things